artbyallen: I won’t claim I drew this FOR @thechrishaley, but I also can’t say I didn’t think about him while drawing it. Seemed appropriate for this weekend, even if my opinion of the movie is dropping the more I think about it and the more I get away from what I wanted it to be rather than what it was. Also, welcome to my new all-my-art-all-the-time Tumblr! The old one’s still here for reblogging other people and stuff like that, but this one will be my “gallery” site from here on out. My art.allenholt.com URL now points to here, and I’ll be filling it in with some older pieces shortly. Enjoy! Yes, I’m reblogging myself.
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artbyallen:

I won’t claim I drew this FOR @thechrishaley, but I also can’t say I didn’t think about him while drawing it. Seemed appropriate for this weekend, even if my opinion of the movie is dropping the more I think about it and the more I get away from what I wanted it to be rather than what it was.

Also, welcome to my new all-my-art-all-the-time Tumblr! The old one’s still here for reblogging other people and stuff like that, but this one will be my “gallery” site from here on out. My art.allenholt.com URL now points to here, and I’ll be filling it in with some older pieces shortly. Enjoy!

Yes, I’m reblogging myself.

  1. push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with 7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.

    2. push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

    3. erase processed food from your diet. start with no lollies, chips, biscuits, then erase pasta, rice, cereal, then bread. use the rule that if a child couldn’t identify what was in it, you don’t eat it.

    4. get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.

    5. stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.

    6. buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

    7. buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.

    8. strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. make your bed in full.

    9. organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.

    10. have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.

    11. push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your dog.

    12. message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.

    14. think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything.

    15. become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.

    16. lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for you.

Sixteen Small Steps to Happiness  (via pigmenting)

Not sure I can or even want to do all of these, but there are several excellent ideas on this list.

(via bluishorange)

Source: emmaorwhatever

bigredrobot:

katewillaert:

Here’s another infographic I did for HalloweenCostumes.com, this time illustrating the history of the emblem on Superman’s chest.

Until I researched this, I had no idea just how many variations the shield went through in its first five years, before they settled on the classic design that went mostly unchanged for over five decades.

My previous infographic (illustrating the evolution of Iron Man’s armor) can be seen here.

Somebody on Twitter was bitching about how they wished the Man of Steel chest emblem was more “historic” or something and I wanted to be like, “Son, which historic chest emblem do you mean?”

Source: katewillaert

My kids apparently play “1% Monopoly.”

Kelsey, age 11: “We have our own rules for Monopoly. Everybody gets to be the banker, and you can take as much money as you want! And you can take other people’s houses when they’re not looking.”

Laurel, age 9: “Yeah, it’s more lifelike this way.”

[later]

Kelsey, gathering her five game tokens to her side of the board: “We’re on strike!”

Laurel: “You can’t be on strike!”

Kelsey: “Well, we are.”

Laurel: “You’re on the wrong side of the strike line!”

Kelsey: “Where’s the right side, then?”

Laurel: “Ha! There isn’t one!”

I want Kelly Sue to come hang out with my daughters. In the meantime, I’m just gonna have to get more of her books for them to read. kellysue: I’ve got three things I’ve got to get turned in today, two kids to get fed and dressed and a bag to pack and a flight to catch, so I can’t respond to this the way I’d like, but I’m putting it here so I don’t forget.   I also need to let my temper subside a bit.  If I were to reply right now I’d resort to name-calling and insults and we all know there’s no ground to be gained there.  Instead, when I’m not shaking anymore, I’ll recount my career trajectory AGAIN.  [Magazine writer/research assistant—>comic reviewer—>7 years adapting manga into English—>anthology shorts—>co-writing gigs—>one-shots—>minis—->ongoings]   Maybe I’ll get Alejandro Arbona to attest—AGAIN!—that I was blind-submitted for my first gig at Marvel.  I’ll offer that if you’re looking for Men to Credit for My Career, you should look first to Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter Rose, Steve Niles and Jamie Rich — all of whom were responsible for making introductions or getting me chances to submit my work well before Matt Fraction had any pull in the industry.  (I’ll also state in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t sleeping with any of those men, because I know, dear Anon, that is your next assumption.)  Or Brian Bendis, who had championed my work in a way I will never be able to adequately thank him for.  (Ditto Steve Wacker.)   (Also not sleeping with Brian or Steve, just so we’re clear.) Maybe I’ll ponder why it isn’t Fraction who’s considered to have benefited from nepotism.  After all, more than 10 years ago now, Matt Fraction was my plus one to Joe Quesada’s 40th birthday party and it was me who sent copies of Last of the Independents to Joe and Axel.  I mean, clearly, it was those gestures that got Fraction his career — certainly not the merit of his work, right? I mean, come on — those Hawkeye Eisner noms are part mine, right?  (I can’t imagine how sick Fraction must be of hearing me tell that story. But I bet it’s not half as sick of it as I am.) (The first person I met in the industry was Wil Rosado. Through him, the first editors I met were Andy Ball, who’s since moved on, and Joey Cavalieri. Just in case anybody wants to make a chart. This would be… maybe 4 years before I met Fraction, Gillen, Ellis, McKelvie et al on the WEF.)  Okay, deep breath.   Bendis is going to tell me that I shouldn’t acknowledge this, that I’m feeling trolls, but here’s the pickle: people deny that this happens.  We’re told that the insults to our dignity working women face are in our imagination, that it’s a thing of sexy Mad Men past.  It’s WOMEN who make this a thing, right?  (Hysterical, don’t you know.)  We’re to the point where I meet young women who won’t identify as feminists because the struggle is over and it’s only a thing if you make it one.  Bullshit.  It’s not a natural assumption to leap to the conclusion that I got my job because of my marriage.  It’s the product of deeply-ingrained sexist thinking.  I can name for you a half a dozen men who did, in fact, get their first big two gigs because of who they knew and their dignity and their qualifications have never been called into question.  I’m lucky if I go a week.   I was recently directed to a post on a snake pit of a message board (what was I thinking, even going to look?) by a man I’d known as long as I’d known my husband, a man I’d met at the same time—a man who had felt free to ask professional favors of me on multiple occasions—who was lamenting how “easily” I’d gotten to where I was because of Fraction. When friends of mine pointed him to my CV, he half-apologized because he had no idea.  Apparently he thought Marvel—a publicly-owned company—was in the habit of handing out gigs to freelancer’s wives just for kicks.  Then he threw up the bit about it being a natural assumption.  I would say simply ‘fuck that guy’ and chalk it up to his not being half as smart as he thinks he is, but here’s the thing:  That guy has daughters.   For them, and for my daughter and for your daughter, I am going to occasionally shine a light on these things… even though it both enrages and embarrasses me.   I don’t know if it’s the right call, but I know that ‘ignore it and it’ll go away’ isn’t working.  I need to figure out a way to contain my outrage enough to talk about it in a way that doesn’t attack, but invites dudes like Anon to rethink their ‘natural assumptions’ without setting myself up as an uppity bitch that they’re invested in proving wrong.   I… I clearly don’t know how to do that right now.  But I’m going to figure it out.    Later. Right now, the kids need breakfast and my son has questions about the xenomorph that can’t wait another second.   I’m out. 
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I want Kelly Sue to come hang out with my daughters. In the meantime, I’m just gonna have to get more of her books for them to read.

kellysue:

I’ve got three things I’ve got to get turned in today, two kids to get fed and dressed and a bag to pack and a flight to catch, so I can’t respond to this the way I’d like, but I’m putting it here so I don’t forget.  

I also need to let my temper subside a bit.  If I were to reply right now I’d resort to name-calling and insults and we all know there’s no ground to be gained there. 

Instead, when I’m not shaking anymore, I’ll recount my career trajectory AGAIN.  [Magazine writer/research assistant—>comic reviewer—>7 years adapting manga into English—>anthology shorts—>co-writing gigs—>one-shots—>minis—->ongoings]  

Maybe I’ll get Alejandro Arbona to attest—AGAIN!—that I was blind-submitted for my first gig at Marvel.  I’ll offer that if you’re looking for Men to Credit for My Career, you should look first to Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter Rose, Steve Niles and Jamie Rich — all of whom were responsible for making introductions or getting me chances to submit my work well before Matt Fraction had any pull in the industry.  (I’ll also state in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t sleeping with any of those men, because I know, dear Anon, that is your next assumption.)  Or Brian Bendis, who had championed my work in a way I will never be able to adequately thank him for.  (Ditto Steve Wacker.)  

(Also not sleeping with Brian or Steve, just so we’re clear.)

Maybe I’ll ponder why it isn’t Fraction who’s considered to have benefited from nepotism.  After all, more than 10 years ago now, Matt Fraction was my plus one to Joe Quesada’s 40th birthday party and it was me who sent copies of Last of the Independents to Joe and Axel.  I mean, clearly, it was those gestures that got Fraction his career — certainly not the merit of his work, right? I mean, come on — those Hawkeye Eisner noms are part mine, right? 

(I can’t imagine how sick Fraction must be of hearing me tell that story. But I bet it’s not half as sick of it as I am.)

(The first person I met in the industry was Wil Rosado. Through him, the first editors I met were Andy Ball, who’s since moved on, and Joey Cavalieri. Just in case anybody wants to make a chart. This would be… maybe 4 years before I met Fraction, Gillen, Ellis, McKelvie et al on the WEF.) 

Okay, deep breath.  

Bendis is going to tell me that I shouldn’t acknowledge this, that I’m feeling trolls, but here’s the pickle: people deny that this happens.  We’re told that the insults to our dignity working women face are in our imagination, that it’s a thing of sexy Mad Men past.  It’s WOMEN who make this a thing, right?  (Hysterical, don’t you know.)  We’re to the point where I meet young women who won’t identify as feminists because the struggle is over and it’s only a thing if you make it one. 

Bullshit. 

It’s not a natural assumption to leap to the conclusion that I got my job because of my marriage.  It’s the product of deeply-ingrained sexist thinking.  I can name for you a half a dozen men who did, in fact, get their first big two gigs because of who they knew and their dignity and their qualifications have never been called into question.  I’m lucky if I go a week.  

I was recently directed to a post on a snake pit of a message board (what was I thinking, even going to look?) by a man I’d known as long as I’d known my husband, a man I’d met at the same time—a man who had felt free to ask professional favors of me on multiple occasions—who was lamenting how “easily” I’d gotten to where I was because of Fraction. When friends of mine pointed him to my CV, he half-apologized because he had no idea.  Apparently he thought Marvel—a publicly-owned company—was in the habit of handing out gigs to freelancer’s wives just for kicks.  Then he threw up the bit about it being a natural assumption. 

I would say simply ‘fuck that guy’ and chalk it up to his not being half as smart as he thinks he is, but here’s the thing: 

That guy has daughters.  

For them, and for my daughter and for your daughter, I am going to occasionally shine a light on these things… even though it both enrages and embarrasses me.  

I don’t know if it’s the right call, but I know that ‘ignore it and it’ll go away’ isn’t working. 

I need to figure out a way to contain my outrage enough to talk about it in a way that doesn’t attack, but invites dudes like Anon to rethink their ‘natural assumptions’ without setting myself up as an uppity bitch that they’re invested in proving wrong.  

I… I clearly don’t know how to do that right now.  But I’m going to figure it out.   

Later.

Right now, the kids need breakfast and my son has questions about the xenomorph that can’t wait another second.  

I’m out.